After wasting hours trying to tune my reconditioned 2" SU's, I discover #6 spark plug had gone out to lunch.
A brand new plug bought in a set on e-bay,
Further investigation showed country of manufacture is Thailand. The old NKG's I used were Japanese.
I am starting to suspect the quality or otherwise reputable brands of parts being sold on-line.
Just curious if anyone else has had issues with spark plug quality, in particular?

 

Thai manufactured NGK plugs are just as good as anything out of Japan. The Swiss even have their watches assembled in Thailand. I've been through the Thai NGK factory. It's world class. They may be a counterfeit of the Thai plug from China etc.

 

Were they cheap?

 

I like NGK plugs, when their OHMs are measured, they're always bang on because they're wire wound.
I'm not sure what's used in other plugs, probably carbon, but the resistance in those can vary by 200 ohms, + or -.
I suppose in the end it doesn't matter, but I had an incident once where my Dad's 59 Chev truck simply refused to start, and I traced the problem down to the resistor plugs.
I took one apart and the resistor inside was this white crumbly mess of something that was oxidized to nothing.
They were Chumpion plugs, never touched them again.

 

It's not relevant now, apart from showing spark plugs aren't all the same. But, in the early 1980s, when I had an interest in spark ignition, I tried a range of makes in the Mk2. Judged on the basis of the endurance of a new set in the car, the absolute best were Golden Lodge. They seemed to go on indefinitely, real fit and forget, unlike the manufacturer who are long gone. Bosch were fairly new into the market. I tried them mainly because I'd met some of their engineers. However, their plugs were not very good. I was quite lucky if they reached more than a few hundred miles before a misfire. Of course, spark plug technology has moved on by leaps and bounds since then.

 

Paid A$67 for a box of 10.
Wifey went out an bought 6 more from a prominent parts retailer here in Oz (Repco). Paid $8.00 each
Salesperson assured her they were Made in Japan.
Got home, open the boxes, all made in Thailand.

 

If they were cheap they are counterfeit. You can usually see counterfeit parts. Their packaging is always better than the original. Go figure!

 

We knew as an oil company in China that we were making fine progress when they started counterfeiting us. Their packaging was always superb.

 

Great copiers, poor innovators.
That is why the country is like it is.
Subservients that always do as they're told.

 

I believe that the bulk of Nikon cameras and lenses are also now made in Thailand (at least the "non-Pro" lines anyway). No issues with quality as far as these go in my experience...

 

The Thais make top quality products and they are very good at it. They are very good at complex assembly ~ hence Swiss watches.

 

The Thais take great pride in their workmanship. It's part of their culture. I consider our finest plants to be in Thailand & Brazil.

 

was wondering if it can be called a "swiss watch" if made in Thailand, but quickly realized i just ate a ham and swiss cheese sandwich this afternoon and the cheese was labeled "Tillamook" and made in Oregon. haha

 

Sounds to me that story has a lot of holes in it.
oops,
Sorry!

 

It's purely assembled in Thailand Huey. All parts are Swiss made.

 

It's worth remembering that the origins of the Swiss watch industry were, at least in part, in cheap, mass produced watches. It turned out that mass produced wasn't only a lot cheaper, but ultimately also much better quality. There are definite cycles in the production of goods and the relocation of manufacturing seems to be tightly bound to those cycles.

 

Sorry to semi-hijack this thread but I was about to ask about spark plugs and wires anyway.
My car is a 66 3.8 9:1 compression, manual trans. I have completely rebuilt the engine and have a pertronix distributor and matching (recommended) coil. The original distributor is still around but in a very sad state. The pertronix unit came with the car.
What would you recommend for plugs and wires? I know I either need resistance wires or resistance plugs. I thought this would be easy but the usual US suppliers (SNG and Moss) seem to be out of many plugs and don't provide any guidance. I'm going for a fairly stock look so no neon green wires, please.

 

The Pertronix Electronic Distributor is equivalent to XJ6 S3 1984 for plugs and wires, non-resistant plugs are best, but getting harder to find. If you got the HD distributor Distributor D171618and 45001 ignition coil, you can set plug gap at 0.040". If you have standard D177600 distributor use OEM gap of 0.035"

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/...park+plug,7212

DENSO 3027 Pre-Set Gap: 0.032" Non-Resistor OE gap of 0.035"

NGK 1233 V-Power; Pre-Set Gap: 0.032" OE-Recommended Gap: 0.035" (my choice)

CHAMPION 38 Copper Plus; Pre-Set Gap: 0.032" Non-Resistor Type; OE Type; OE-Recommended Gap: 0.035"

NGK 7734 Standard; Pre-Set Gap: 0.036" OE-Recommended Gap: 0.035"

Wires

DENSO 6716140 7mm

STANDARD MOTOR PRODUCTS 55426 Intermotor

NGK 54393

UNITED MOTOR PRODUCTS 9613 United-Packard Premium Wire Set

Rgds
David
PS: Be sure to do initial timing of the Pertronix Distributor to their instructions (available on their web-site), not the jaguar workbook instructions.

 

Thank you, David. This is very helpful.
The box says that it is a D179600 distributor. It looks like the D179600 is the positive earth version of the D177600, at least from the description on the Pertronix page.
The coil is 40511, which is a 3 ohm, 40,000 volt version.

 

This is found on E-bay. same as NGK 1233, but non-resistor version. Wires are resistor, so plugs do not have to be.

6 x Spark Plugs Made in Japan NGK V-Power 7327 BP5EY 7327 BP5EY Tune Up Kit Set

yesautoparts US $19.97

Rgds
David